The Astartes Family's Notebook

“Freil, only Amaterasu can call me Gauss, you must call me Gugil.”

"Alright, alright, you are all veterans who have fought for thousands of years, and I am just a five-hundred-year-old recruit. Whatever the veterans say is true, and you are all right."

As a small warband of only three people, Amaterasu had no intention of interfering with how the warband members got along. Rather than repeatedly emphasizing his authority as the warband leader, he believed that interests and emotions were more conducive to internal unity.

"Gaz, going all in is a kind of wisdom, but folding is a great wisdom. The Dark Prince has made his choice, and the game is over before it even began."

Amaterasu squinted, his tactical helmet long gone, despite wearing Mark III power armor.

And now, he no longer needs to wear a tactical helmet.

As an Astartes without division of chaos, Amaterasu does not serve any destructive power, yet she is more favored by the Warp than many of the chosen gods.

Wearing the Mark VI power armor but never removing his helmet, Frey immediately changed from a split-legged sitting posture to an obedient one with his hands wrapped around his knees.

He loved listening to Amaterasu's warp ghost stories; he had no idea where Amaterasu had stolen these secrets from among the gods.

Amaterasu was amused by Freyr's affected manner, but when he turned around, he saw that Ghas was also staring straight at him.

Okay, okay.

"The Chosen Ones of Chaos, what a beautiful name. In order to transcend the limitations of mortal bodies and ascend to become demon princes, how many things have we Astartes, who embraced chaos, done against our conscience?"

"But serving the gods is not such a casual matter, especially since the Four Gods are already quite casual. What about the Serpent Lord, what about the Pale Lord, what about that slave owner, and the red-skinned one-eyed Oglin is even more unbearable to look at."

"On the contrary, our Legion's Great Raider lives a much more carefree life than the Primarch."

"So don't worry too much about ascending to demonhood. When the time is right, even if you don't want to ascend, the Four Gods will coax you to ascend. You can't force it."

"By the same token, the chosen one of Chaos should either not be chosen, or be chosen by the four gods as the eternal chosen one."

Gas felt like he was about to grow a brain, and it was so itchy that he quickly asked a question.

"Amaterasu, what is the difference between the Chosen of the Four Gods and the Eternal Chosen?"

Amaterasu did not rush to reply, but thought about it for a moment.

"People often refer to that one as the youngest lady, but little do they know that the one hates that title. Warp deities are immortal beings whose proof is eternal; time means nothing to them."

"It is said that before that one was born, the Skull Lord was the strongest god, and later the Lord of Myriad Changes became the strongest."

"But after that one was born, the greatest fun that the warp has ever had occurred."

GAZ and Flær straightened their necks and gestured through their tactical helmets that the combat buddy should stop keeping them in suspense.

"From the three of them to the four gods ruling together, the most powerful one, the Lord of Change, was too confident in his own power. When the other three were vying for a certain Astartes senior whose name was kept secret, the Lord of Change did not place his bet."

Deliberately keeping them in suspense, Amaterasu waited a little longer.

"Then the fun began. The Lord of the Skull, the Compassionate Father, and that lady, who were originally fighting over it, immediately joined forces to bestow a blessing upon our colleague whose name we do not know. Thus, under his leadership, the three allied forces directly stormed into the crystal labyrinth of the Celestial Venerable Qingbao."

Who is Qingbao Tianzun?

Gas asked, puzzled.

"Qingbao Tianzun is the treacherous one... the master of all changes, and the master of all changes has many names."

"Oh."

"Gaz is easy," Amaterasu said, breaking out in a cold sweat.

With his knowledge of subspace and his mastery of witchcraft, it would be fine for him to use pseudonyms to refer to the Four Gods, but if he called them by their real names, he would immediately be noticed by the true gods.

Teammates using basic attacks to bait out flashes is impossible to defend against.

"Go on, the three allied forces stormed into the Crystal Labyrinth. The Lord of Change, the treacherous... the Qing... was furious, but helpless. He could only smash the Staff of Destiny, which symbolized power and authority, before the other three retreated. From then on, there was no longer a saying that the four gods were the strongest."

"Because of this incident, in the realm of Chaos Chosen Gods, there can be a Chosen God who serves only one God, a Chosen God where two Gods compete to place bets simultaneously, or an Eternal Chosen God where four Gods increase their bets together. The only thing that will never happen again is a Chosen God with three Gods in the same race."

"You should know that the shoe print on Qingbao Tianzun's face has not yet subsided."

It's great to listen to, I love listening to it. I joined the Zhanbang (battle guild) just to hear the stories.

Fryer couldn't help but press for more information.

"Boss, what did you mean when you said the Dark Prince has made a decision?"

"This round with Omidas isn't a new gamble by the Four Gods, but rather a follow-up to the last one against Macarius. Khorne doesn't intend to pursue the matter of Nurgle's hijacking."

At this point, Amaterasu paused, seemingly concentrating to confirm something, before continuing.

"However, the Lord of Change was not satisfied, so he set a trap to drag the Dark Prince into the game. But Slaanesh was not very interested in this kind of endgame."

Amaterasu was stunned for a moment.

"But with Qingbao Tianzun's shoe print in front, the Dark Prince had no choice but to get involved, so he greeted the other two and prepared to overturn the table."

Now, Gas Gugil and Freyr were also stunned.

"What do you mean?"

"It means the Dark Prince made a psionic call to our Corpse King's Greyhound, and those unlucky bastards are coming."

GAZ stood at attention, and Freyr also stood up.

Grey Knight, what bad luck.

"So what's the point of all that trouble I went through to lure Mutox here? In the great game of the gods, we're all just supporting characters, just pawns. Let's go, we'll come back another time. I don't want to get bitten by a dog."

Amaterasu was telling a story with a smile, advising his two younger brothers to broaden their minds.

As a result, the leader of the war gang became angrier and angrier, not only because his plan had failed, but also because of the Gray Knight.

So Amaterasu threw a wide-area, unencrypted image of a mysterious hooded (cat-like) man into the warp.

For no other reason than to trip up the Grey Knights.

Hehe, I'd be happy to.

Chapter 45 The Gray Knight

In the world of Warhammer, there are no trolley problems, only simple arithmetic operations.

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------

For a long time, even the Astartes of the chapters didn't know what a Grey Knight was.

The Grey Knights, being full-fledged psionicists, fully demonstrate that the Empire can actually do a very good job of keeping secrets if it wants to.

How good can it be?

Even before M39, rumors about the mysterious "Grey Knight Project" had already begun circulating among the Astartes Chapter.

Rumors circulated that the Grey Knights were wearing a brand-new power armor set, and the Empire immediately produced such a cool-looking power armor set and distributed it to a small number of chapters. The Desolation Wings received one, and this is documented in the chapter archives.

Rumors circulated that the Grey Knights weren't power armor but Terminator armor, and the Empire, despite the uncertainty, placed an order with Mars. This led the faction members to believe that Holy Terra had finally come to its senses and was preparing to re-equip the Chapter. However, all talk and no action followed, and nothing more happened.

There were also rumors that the Gray Knight wasn't a power armor or a Terminator armor, but rather a new type of war machine similar to the Imperial Knight mechs. This time, the Empire didn't need to step in; the Mechanicus was the first to deny it, saying that Mars had no plans to develop a brand-new Knight mech. Now everyone understood: if it wasn't a Knight mech, then it must be a new model of the Titan. And then nothing more was said.

Then, power swords, power axes, firearms, cannons—you name it, there's something for everyone. It's made the Grey Knights seem like a legend, something everyone's heard of, but I don't know who told me it from.

For thousands of years, this was kept secret until the M39 era, when the forces of the warp became increasingly rampant and a large-scale Chaos Calamity broke out within the Empire. The Empire no longer had the resources to maintain a comprehensive cover-up, and the Grey Knights, this special chapter, began to gradually appear in the archives of other Astartes chapters of the Empire.

As a result, the Grey Knights' hated and disliked style of doing things gradually became known to the brothers in the gang.

Chang Wei once said that this is how the Vietnamese gang does things, and the Grey Knights are even more so.

Because ordinary Space Marine chapters are affiliated with the Primarch's established organizations, and the various chapters and the Terran government operate on separate systems and paths, the Grey Knights are different. The Grey Knights are a special operations force directly under the Terran Inquisition, and are essentially military police!

To be more specific, why are the judges of the Inquisition affiliated with the Exile Order, the judges of the Inquisition affiliated with the Rebel Order, while the judges of the Inquisition of Demons are affiliated with the Holy Hammer Order, which has no connection to their functions?

The Order of the Holy Hammer, also known as the Grey Knights, were the first and last Holy Hammer of the Empire.

As a specialized anti-demon force, the Grey Knights' basic policy is to kill the innocent rather than let the guilty go free. Even if they need the assistance of mortal troops, the Grey Knights will have the Inquisitors, who act as the white gloves, prepare two waves of troops. The first wave is used to kill demons and cultists, while the second wave is responsible for silencing the first wave.

Even the Astartes Chapter, after encountering or even helping the Grey Knights fight against demons, either undergo brainwashing to erase their memories or sign a psionic pact to remain silent forever.

If you don't accept control, even if you are an Astartes, they will still kill you. If you break your promise, they will come to take your life according to the psionic pact.

Damn it, we're all Emperor's Death Angels, how can you be so domineering and make your gang members respect you?

As the war in the Infernal Galaxy intensified, not only were ordinary Astartes Chapters suffering heavy losses, but even the Grey Knights were finding it difficult to replenish their ranks. They could no longer treat their fellow Astartes so brutally, and thus information about the Grey Knights began to circulate secretly on a small scale among the high command of the Space Marine Chapters.

As a former 2nd Company Commander and still the second in line to succeed the Wings of Desolation, Mada Sich was naturally aware of the Grey Knights' existence, and couldn't help but curse under his breath.

The punitive fleet, led by Inquisitor Odachi, simply didn't have the spare manpower to guard Mandeville Point in the system, nor was it necessary. As a result, the Fourth Company, which was playing hide-and-seek with the World Eater Chaos Warband in the Deep Nest, only realized that guests had arrived after the Grey Knights' battle barge, carrying an Imperial Navy Retribution-class battleship and its escort fleet, had sailed out of Mandeville Point.

An unwelcome guest has arrived; their intentions are surely not good.

On the punitive fleet side, the main force consists of one combat barge, one heavy strike cruiser, and one Luna-class cruiser.

However, even these three ships combined were no match for the Retribution-class battleships.

After humanity entered the age of interstellar colonization, ships returned to the aesthetic standards of the Age of Exploration: big is good, many is beautiful, tonnage is justice, and billions of turrets bring billions of glory.

With a length of over 5,000 meters and a mass of over 100 million tons, the Victory Balance was already an undeniable steel behemoth. However, the shortest of the Retribution-class battleships was around 7,000 meters long, and the lightest weighed 300 million tons.

Looking at the data alone doesn't seem like much, but the problem lies in the tactical positioning of the Retribution level.

The Empire has many types of battleships, but the only ones that can keep up with the main battlecruisers or heavy cruisers in coordinated attacks are the Queen of Glory-class, the original ship of the Imperial Empire, and the Retribution-class.

This is a battleship designed specifically for interstellar naval warfare. Although its land attack capability is only comparable to that of a light cruiser, its anti-ship firepower is incredibly fierce.

In the star system where Nafar and Omidas reside, is there an enemy that requires a formidable force like the Retribution-class, capable of serving as the flagship of a sector navy, to take action?

Motor Sich isn't blind; they're clearly targeting the punitive fleet.

But the more the Fourth Company Commander thought about it, the less he understood. The Fourth Company could handle the Chaos War Gang of more than a dozen people without any problem, so why would it alarm the Gray Knights?

Madsich couldn't understand it, and Odach couldn't understand it even more. The young judge was originally from the Demon Tribunal, and he knew about the Grey Knights.

So he hurriedly sent the powerful psychic Baldwin to deliver a letter to his teacher to find out what was going on.

It turned out that hanging up the psionic phone would have been fine, but it led to a major disaster.

The Grey Knights suppressed subspace communications across the entire galaxy, cutting off the Retribution Fleet's network.

The Fourth Company's Star Language Choir had been collectively executed thirty years ago for psychic rampage, and for a long time, the navigators had been handling the Star Language communications part-time, so they hadn't noticed anything amiss. It wasn't until Inquisitor Odachi reported the situation that the two navigators of the Fourth Company realized that it seemed so—psychic calls were no longer working.

Specialization is key. It's already quite good that a ship's navigator from a family of navigators can also handle radio communication. Adding a valuable asset like a Star Language Choir requires submitting a report to the Star District Government for approval and then waiting in line for notification.

So when Company Commander Motor Sich realized he couldn't get reinforcements, his expression immediately softened.

The former Second Company Commander knew the level of the chapter's think tank. Given the terrifying configuration of the Grey Knights, who were all powerful psionicists, the current Fourth Company Commander dared not have even the slightest extra thought.

Let's wait for someone to take the initiative to contact us.

In this chaotic battle, everyone's identity is self-imposed. Now, the Grey Knight is the one who's in charge, whether he's capable or not. If there's any dissatisfaction, just bear with it.

Chapter 46 The Black Knight, Transformation

Only those who have wronged you truly know how wronged you are.

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------

Master Baldwin was taken away, as were the two navigators of the Fourth Company. The Grey Knights even requested to board the Victory Balance and the Pioneer Star for a chastity check, but Commander Motor Sich firmly refused.

What a load of crap about the Chaos faction! Kaz and his Astartes warriors, who were just yesterday helping the Empire wipe out a major enemy, are all returning to their ships today to prepare for a counter-fight.

The Moon-class cruisers summoned by the Odachi Inquisitor also defected. As a member of the Imperial Navy, the captain could not disobey the orders of the Starfield Naval Command and turned his guns on the battle barges and heavy strike cruisers of the Desolate Wings Fourth Company.

Exuding domineering aura, this is the Grey Knights Legion, number 666.

The Omidas military leaders were dumbfounded, not knowing what divine law they had broken to be subjected to such a massive punitive fleet pointing its cannons at them in their lifetime.

The reality was so shocking that I no longer felt any fear.

For the Grey Knights, the reaction of the Desolation Wings was nothing out of the ordinary. The other Astartes Chapters of the Imperium did the same. As long as the Victory Balance and the Pioneer Star did not show any signs of activating the Geller Field and making a blind warp jump without a navigator, the Grey Knights were not prepared to make things too ugly.

In any case, given their overwhelming strength, it's only a matter of time before they compromise.

Chaos is the Empire’s greatest enemy, and anything related to it must be taken seriously.

While the brothers in the company were having a tantrum, Motor Sich, who had been dedicated to mending the rifts within the company, was relieved. The work that he had planned to spend decades to complete was finished by the Gray Knights in less than twenty hours. They really had guts.

But even if you're willing to fight, you can't just fight recklessly. A four-ship squadron can't handle a Retribution-class battleship right up to your face.

This is not the farcical rebellion that happened before, but a major event in which the Grey Knights will actually silence them.

It seems we're destined to suffer this injustice in silence.

The Grey Knights still considered the Desolate Wings Chapter a brother unit for the time being, and conveyed their preparations to carry out an extermination order against the Omidas Nest City. However, when the Victory Balance launched the virus bomb, the four-way chaos erupted.

The Chaos Warband of the World Eaters has been completely wiped out. Even if the Chaos Wizard of the Emperor's Son goes berserk and becomes a Chaos Egg, he cannot harm the Grey Knight in the slightest.